Vectors: to draw or not to draw?

When I teach vectors, I notice how students love to draw the diagrams of their own diagrams and then depend on them to solve question.

Firstly, there is nothing wrong with drawing. But I always remind my students to take their image with a pinch of salt. Why? Cos you’re attempting to draw a 3-D diagram on a 2-D space! Half the time, you probably overlook some minor description

Next, the diagrams have no marks. Examiners don’t mark your diagrams so is it worth to spend 10mins drawing out something nice.

So what do we do then? I always advice my students, ask my a piece of foolscap paper and start folding if you need planes, then poke your pen through if you need a line. I had a student bringing in satay stick for A-level haha. He looked funny in exam, but he got his A.

Even better, try visualising it!

Credits: Discrete mathematics with applications by Susanna S. Epp

The above contains all permutations of 3 planes interactions and their results. Hope it helps. For more tricks on dealing with vectors questions, contact KS @ 98156827 or check out my Math class schedule.